I'm pretty sure if they offer a turbo 6, AWD comes with it. Their SH-AWD is pretty darn good as it is and they could program it for more rear torque bias as other commentors have suggested. I wouldn't write this off just yet....

I'm pretty sure if they offer a turbo 6, AWD comes with it. Their SH-AWD is pretty darn good as it is and they could program it for more rear torque bias as other commentors have suggested. I wouldn't write this off just yet....

Adding more torque to the rear won't solve the issue, which is having the majority of the weight of the car over the front axle. There is a reason some of the best handling cars since forever have a 50/50 or near 50/50 weight distribution. A FWD based platform will never have this. It will always plow through corners and understeer, no matter how much technology is baked in to try to mask it.

Adding more torque to the rear won't solve the issue, which is having the majority of the weight of the car over the front axle. There is a reason some of the best handling cars since forever have a 50/50 or near 50/50 weight distribution. A FWD based platform will never have this. It will always plow through corners and understeer, no matter how much technology is baked in to try to mask it.

I am just saying that they can do some surprising things with front drivers with the addition of P-AWS or SH-AWD and I am not going to automatically write it off just because of its architecture.

Adding more torque to the rear won't solve the issue, which is having the majority of the weight of the car over the front axle. There is a reason some of the best handling cars since forever have a 50/50 or near 50/50 weight distribution. A FWD based platform will never have this. It will always plow through corners and understeer, no matter how much technology is baked in to try to mask it.

You can engineer a car to do almost anything for the right amount of money. How do you think companies get 5000+ SUV's to handle like sports cars? The answer is they cost $150,000.

There will always be some sacrifices to keep a car within particular cost constraints. Therefore, no, the TLX may never handle like a Honda S2000 or an AMG car, but with overall chassis improvements and SH-AWD it will probably be pretty damn good for a FWD-based car (almost every Audi). Not to mention, people don't nearly approach a car's limits in real-world driving.

Adding more torque to the rear won't solve the issue, which is having the majority of the weight of the car over the front axle. There is a reason some of the best handling cars since forever have a 50/50 or near 50/50 weight distribution. A FWD based platform will never have this. It will always plow through corners and understeer, no matter how much technology is baked in to try to mask it.

So it's a bigger version of the Current ILX? Are we supposed to be shocked?

The current ILX is based on a 9th-gen Civic (heavily hated by reviewers when it came out in the early 2010s). The new TLX is expected to use the new 10th-gen Accord platform, which has a drastically different driving character than the 9th-gen Accord (which the current TLX is based on).

The current ILX is based on a 9th-gen Civic (heavily hated by reviewers when it came out in the early 2010s). The new TLX is expected to use the new 10th-gen Accord platform, which has a drastically different driving character than the 9th-gen Accord (which the current TLX is based on).

I thought this new TLX will be on a new platform not shared with Honda...

Hardly. Acura already has the paper specs to make a proper car but they refuse to tune it correctly. What is the point of rear wheel steering and a toque vectoring AWD system if they are just going to build in globs of understeer? I'm hoping this car will be great, but I'm not holding my breath.

Hardly. Acura already has the paper specs to make a proper car but they refuse to tune it correctly. What is the point of rear wheel steering and a toque vectoring AWD system if they are just going to build in globs of understeer? I'm hoping this car will be great, but I'm not holding my breath.

Hardly. Acura already has the paper specs to make a proper car but they refuse to tune it correctly. What is the point of rear wheel steering and a toque vectoring AWD system if they are just going to build in globs of understeer? I'm hoping this car will be great, but I'm not holding my breath.

Well, Acura has fallen off in the last decade or so...(as had Honda)...but they have shown recently that they do know how to execute these things. The Civic Type R is an example: over 300 HP and zero understeer.

The striking blue color, called Double Apex Blue Pearl, is said to hark back to a hue offered on the 2007–2008 TL Type S.

Double Apex Blue? That is so lame. BTW, the last Type S never had a blue like this. The only blue that was offered was the Kinetic Blue Pearl. I should know because that is my favorite color for the Type S and I very nearly purchased on not long ago. Nice try, Acura.

The striking blue color, called Double Apex Blue Pearl, is said to hark back to a hue offered on the 2007–2008 TL Type S.

Double Apex Blue? That is so lame. BTW, the last Type S never had a blue like this. The only blue that was offered was the Kinetic Blue Pearl. I should know because that is my favorite color for the Type S and I very nearly purchased on not long ago. Nice try, Acura.

Really? So this blue doesn't remind or "hark" back to the 07 TLS? Really....

Seeing that it is not based on the Accord, and using an Acura only platform, I still think it should be promising. No it wont be a BMW although in recent years, they have gotten soft too, but if Honda can somehow make it into a Audi S4 for less money, which is also a FWD based design like the TLX, then Acura should have a much needed hit with it. I am also hoping the next gen of SH-AWD for the Type S is a more rear biased system too, which would help too.

I simply won't allow myself to believe that a company that can't even manage to make their 'luxury' cars look any different from their mainstream cars created a bespoke platform. Didn't believe it for the RDX and I don't believe it here. Why go through the expense of creating an Acura specific platform, but then make it FWD? Makes no sense.

I simply won't allow myself to believe that a company that can't even manage to make their 'luxury' cars look any different from their mainstream cars created a bespoke platform. Didn't believe it for the RDX and I don't believe it here. Why go through the expense of creating an Acura specific platform, but then make it FWD? Makes no sense.

exactly! fwd layout is already telling you that it is the next generation accord/civic platform.

The A4/S4 is not a FWD based design but rather something in between FWD and RWD. In both AWD and FWD configurations, the engine is longitudinally mounted. In the AWD configuration power is sent to a Torsen center differential, not a Haldex system. Traditional FWD platforms use transversely mounted engines, as this TLX probably will. Conversely, most RWD platforms use a rear transaxle to distribute weight better.

On paper, Acura may have the tech to compete with the S4 but it would be foolish to target it, especially at that price point. They've been out of the performance sedan segments for so long, it would be very difficult to justify. They really need to take aim at the Stinger, G70 and upcoming CT4/5-Vs.

I simply won't allow myself to believe that a company that can't even manage to make their 'luxury' cars look any different from their mainstream cars created a bespoke platform. Didn't believe it for the RDX and I don't believe it here. Why go through the expense of creating an Acura specific platform, but then make it FWD? Makes no sense.

I don't want to split hairs, but in the biz lingo I don't think "Acura specific" means "bespoke".

I want to say the Ridgeline and Odyssey are different enough to call each unique, even though at some point in a tear down they'd come back to a common point.

The other possibility is that it is indeed bespoke (for the time being), but will trickle down to Honda or some other Acura product at a future date. The expense to make a bespoke TLX would be at least in the ballpark/conversation of why Toyota couldn't make their own Supra.

I simply won't allow myself to believe that a company that can't even manage to make their 'luxury' cars look any different from their mainstream cars created a bespoke platform. Didn't believe it for the RDX and I don't believe it here. Why go through the expense of creating an Acura specific platform, but then make it FWD? Makes no sense.

Well, how did you feel about it when Audi did it? (The A4 shared a platform with the Passat for a long time...but they 'went through the expense of creating an Audi specific platform, and made it FWD'. A6 also.) And they have done quite well.

Seeing that it is not based on the Accord, and using an Acura only platform, I still think it should be promising. No it wont be a BMW although in recent years, they have gotten soft too, but if Honda can somehow make it into a Audi S4 for less money, which is also a FWD based design like the TLX, then Acura should have a much needed hit with it. I am also hoping the next gen of SH-AWD for the Type S is a more rear biased system too, which would help too.

Where, exactly, are you seeing anything about it being an Acura-only platform?

The A4/S4 is not a FWD based design but rather something in between FWD and RWD. In both AWD and FWD configurations, the engine is longitudinally mounted. In the AWD configuration power is sent to a Torsen center differential, not a Haldex system. Traditional FWD platforms use transversely mounted engines, as this TLX probably will. Conversely, most RWD platforms use a rear transaxle to distribute weight better.

On paper, Acura may have the tech to compete with the S4 but it would be foolish to target it, especially at that price point. They've been out of the performance sedan segments for so long, it would be very difficult to justify. They really need to take aim at the Stinger, G70 and upcoming CT4/5-Vs.

I very much doubt it will be able to match the G70 or the Cadillacs. The Cadillacs are the best driving cars in their class (at least the ATS was) and the G70 drives better than the 3 series. Audi would have to be closer in reach.

Where, exactly, are you seeing anything about it being an Acura-only platform?

When the RDX came out, word was that its new dedicated platform would be the basis of future Acura models as well. This would seem to be a logical candidate. Though I'm not sure why they wouldn't just use the excellent ninth-gen Accord platform instead.

I also wonder how 'Acura-specific' that new platform really is. The RDX's launch PR talked it up a lot, but it makes no sense to burn money developing two separate platforms for similar purposes when you already have one really good one. Total speculation, but it may be more of an adaptation, something akin to Lexus saying the ES isn't based on the Camry, because it's based on the Avalon, which is a stretched Camry.

The A4/S4 is not a FWD based design but rather something in between FWD and RWD.

No, they are FWD-based, Torsen or not, longitudinal or not. Audi's have always been sold as FWD cars with an AWD option. Older Acura's and Saab's among some other cars also had longitudinally mounted FWD drive trains.

No, they are FWD-based, Torsen or not, longitudinal or not. Audi's have always been sold as FWD cars with an AWD option. Older Acura's and Saab's among some other cars also had longitudinally mounted FWD drive trains.

Not to mention that the A3 and TT are transverse...even the TT RS. Also the pretty good Polestar Volvos.

Where, exactly, are you seeing anything about it being an Acura-only platform?

That was mentioned months ago in the test of the RDX, which the TLX will share its platform, as will an extended version for the MDX. It will be an Acura only platform and the difference here is that the Acura only platform can support a midsize SUV like the MDX, where the Honda Global Car Platform, which is what the Accord, Civic and CR-V are built on cannot (which is why the Pilot and Passport are built on a different platform, Honda Global Light Truck platform, which is used for the Pilot, Passport, Ridgeline and Odyssey), and the next MDX will also be separated from the Pilot. The TLX and MDX's upcoming twin turbo V-6 will also not be shared with any Honda product, although the Honda products that use the current J35 V-6 will probably get a naturally aspirated version of the same new V-6. Its not quite like Toyota's TNGA platform that can support subcompact, compact, midsize and large cars and CUV's, I-4, V-6, hybrid, EV, FWD, AWD. The 10 speed automatic and 2.0T will be shared, but Acuras version runs 91 octane, the Accord's 87 octane (although the Type R runs 93) and the gearing will be different in the Acura version of the 10 speed, more for performance than fuel economy.

No, they are FWD-based, Torsen or not, longitudinal or not. Audi's have always been sold as FWD cars with an AWD option. Older Acura's and Saab's among some other cars also had longitudinally mounted FWD drive trains.

So did the Chrysler LH cars in the 90's. FWD but longitudinally mounted engines.

I'm sure their answer is they make a "4wd" version of the TLX... well... kind of. Lexus has 3 variants of sedan in this range (IS, ES, GS).... that cover a wider array of buyer needs. However, Lexus is more expensive on average (sometimes for good reason). For me, the TLX is just a very quiet version of the Accord, and it was marked way down from MSRP ($6500). In that context, it's not competing with the German usual suspects, or even with a brand new ES350 for that matter.

I wish this would've come out now instead of over a year from now (I'm a Stinger GT owner, but have owned Hondas/Acuras for years), but assuming the performance under the hood matches the looks, I'm looking forward to seeing what Acura does with the TLX Type S.